Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I wish to understand the implications of the change.

The fund of €369 million is a lot of money but this is the national Parliament and it does cover every aspect of its work. People tend to think of the expenditure being exclusively for the salary of politicians but it covers everything included in the running of the Houses from heating to the upkeep of the building.

Section 6 deals with the change in the presentation of the commission’s accounts to allow for payment for secretarial assistance to all Members rather than restricting it to non-officeholders. That seems to imply that Ministers and Ministers of State will be the new people included in that staff allocation. Perhaps the Minister could confirm that and what the cost is, as it appears to be a new cost, or perhaps I have misunderstood the way it is presented.

The key point is the oversight. I think it will be down to the make-up of the next Dáil and it depends on which side of the House one is positioned. The kind of checks and balances that should be built in are not included because if the Government gets a very large Dáil majority, that is disproportionate and one does not have the oversight one would normally have in a more balanced arrangement. None of us knows what the result of the next election will be, but there is a strong possibility that there will be another Technical Group based on current opinion polls. It is difficult to say whether I will end up being part of that if I get elected or if I end up with an entity that has more than seven seats. That is all irrelevant from that point of view. What is relevant is that there is a fair approach to the running of the Oireachtas because having been the Whip for the Technical Group for almost the past five years, it is pretty difficult to do the kind of co-ordination that is required, in particular when an event such as the so-called prom night occurs, for example, when one has no staff and one is trying to gather people together late at night to organise speaking arrangements and other such matters. It is a very unfair approach. It treats in a very unfair way a mandate that is as valid as any other. There is a big gap and it should have been addressed.

The Minister sent a letter to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission that was quite supportive of some level of supports but, unfortunately, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission did not see it that way and we got nowhere with it, which is very regrettable.

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